Manual Apparatus For Dividing And Encapsulating Drug Powders

ABSTRACT

A manual apparatus for dividing drug powders and encapsulating the divided drug powders into capsules is provided. According to the present invention, drug powders are loaded in vertical slots. Then, a partitioning plate is drawn to expose holes configured thereunder, so that the drug powders fall down from the drug loader into the capsule bodies previously provided in the channels. Then the capsule caps are manually provided onto the capsule bodies, so as to apply a downward pressure onto the capsule bodies. Correspondingly, the sticks provide counterforces in response to the downward pressures to upwardly push the capsule bodies so that the capsule bodies and the capsule caps can be more solidly assembled.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for filling capsules, and more particularly, to an apparatus employing a counterforce for sufficiently encapsulating drug powders into capsules.

2. The Prior Arts

In medically treating an animal patient, it is always a hard job to have the patient to take drugs. Sometimes, the veterinarian has to grind prescribed drugs into powders, and then feed the ground drugs in the manner of either powders, liquid medicine, or capsule, to the patient.

Unfortunately, the animal patient maybe do not like to take many tablets, pills, or capsules together, and therefore the veterinarian has to prepare all prescribed medical ingredients in a single capsule, for the convenience of feeding the patient. In doing so, all of the prescribed drugs are mixed together and ground into powders at first, and are then averagely divided into doses. Therefore, the doses of the divided powders are then manually filled into capsules one by one. Specifically, smaller capsules are preferred for encapsulating the drug powders, as long as the drug powders can be completely contained therein.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Typically, it is known that conventional animal-used drug capsules are usually manually filled one by one. As such, each capsule filled with drug powders often has an empty section left unfilled. Accordingly, either such a conventional animal-used drug capsule is filled with insufficient drug powders, or otherwise a larger capsule should be employed for substitution. In this manner, certain spaces of capsules and costs thereof are wasted.

Further, the one-by-one filling approach takes too long time on repetitively filling the capsules. Particularly, when a prescription is used for a long period, much more time would be consumed on filling the capsules, which is believed uneconomical.

Accordingly, a primary objective of the present invention is to provide a solution for the complicated process of dividing the drug powders into doses, as well the insufficient utility of the capsules.

The present invention provides a manual apparatus for dividing drug powders and encapsulating the divided drug powders into capsules. According to the present invention, drug powders are loaded in a drug loader, and thus fall down into capsule bodies and channels. Then, capsule caps are manually provided for sealing the capsule bodies. Therefore, sticks are downwardly applied with a pressure by the capsule caps, and correspondingly provide counterforces to push the capsule bodies so as to more solidly encapsulating the drug powders distributed in the capsule bodies and the channels. In operation, at first, the drug powders are loaded in vertical slots. Then, a partitioning plate is drawn to expose holes configured thereunder, so that the drug powders fall down from the drug loader into the capsule bodies previously provided in the channels. Then the capsule caps are manually provided onto the capsule bodies, so as to apply downward pressures onto the capsule bodies. Correspondingly, the sticks provide counterforces in response to the downward pressures to upwardly push the capsule bodies so that the capsule bodies and the capsule caps can be more solidly assembled.

Comparing with the conventional arts, the present invention employs the counterforces responsive to the downward pressures to push the capsule bodies for solidly compressing the drug powders contained in the capsule, so as to save the capsule spaces, as well as the time for one by one filling the capsules.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art by reading the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof, with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a manual apparatus for dividing and encapsulating drug powders according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the status before the drug powders fall into the capsules;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the status after the drug powders fall into the capsules;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the operation of providing capsule caps;

FIG. 6 illustrates a first embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 7 illustrates a second embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a manual apparatus for dividing and encapsulating drug powders according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the manual apparatus includes a drug loader 1, a main body 2, and a base 3. FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2, the drug loader 1 further includes a plurality of vertical slots 111, a plurality of funnels 112, and a partitioning plate 13. The vertical slots 111 are vertically configured at a top side of the drug loader 1. The funnels are vertically configured at a bottom side of the drug loader 1. The vertical slots 111 and the funnels 112 are correspondingly communicated each other, respectively. The partitioning plate 13 can be inserted in a flat slot configured at a side of the drug loader 1, and is horizontally moveable relative to the drug loader 1. The partitioning plate 13 is configured with a plurality of holes corresponding to the vertical slots 111 and the funnels 1 12. The partitioning plate 13 can be inserted inside the flat slot of the drug loader 1 at a first position, where the partitioning plate 13 intersects the vertical slots 111, so that the vertical slots 111 and the partitioning plate 13 temporarily configure a plurality of temporary accommodating spaces.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the status before the drug powders fall into the capsules. Referring to FIG. 3, the main body 2 includes an assembly board 21, a plurality of supporters 22, and a plurality of sticks 23. The assembly board 21 is detachable from the main body 2. The assembly board 21 includes a plurality of channels 211 configured with different sizes corresponding to capsules to be filled. The channels 211 are preferably vertically configured. Each of the channels 211 has an opening. The openings are aligned with the funnels 112 for receiving the drug powders falling down from the temporary accommodating spaces.

The supporters 22 are disposed on the base 3 and received in corresponding blind holes configured at a bottom of the main body 2. Each of the supporters 22 further includes a spring 221 for providing an upward elastic force supporting the main body 2. The sticks 23 are secured on the base 3 and sleeved inside a plurality of through holes configured through the main body 2 until reaching bottoms of the channels 211. The main body 2 is up-down movable along the sticks 23 and the supporters 22.

In operation, the partitioning plate 13 is inserted inside the flat slot of the drug loader 1 at the first position. Therefore, the partitioning plate 13 intersects the vertical slots 111, so that the vertical slots 111 and the partitioning plate 13 temporarily configure a plurality of temporary accommodating spaces. Drug powders are averagely divided, and then the divided drug powders are distributed into the temporary accommodating spaces. The drug loader 1 is aligned with the main body 2 and settled thereon.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the status after the drug powders fall into the capsules. Referring to FIG. 4, the partitioning plate 13 is drawn from the first position for a certain distance to a second position, in which the holes of the partitioning plate 13 are correspondingly aligned with the vertical slots 111, so that the drug powders distributed in the temporary accommodating spaces fall down via the holes of the partitioning plate 13 and the funnels 112 into the channels 211. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, capsule bodies 51 have been previously provided at bottoms of the channels 211 for receiving the falling drug powders. As a result, the drug powders are filled in the channels 211, and carried by the capsule bodies at the bottoms of the channels 211.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the operation of providing capsule caps. Referring to FIG. 5, the drug loader 1 is taken away, and then capsule caps 52 are put in the channels 211 covering over the drug powders filled therein. FIG. 6 illustrates a first embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 6, a solid means 7 is then provided on the main body 2 and against the capsule caps 52. Then, a downward force is applied to the main body 2. Correspondingly, the springs 221 are compressed till the bottom of the main body reaches an upper surface of the base 3. In such a way, the sticks 23 protrude out from the bottoms of the channels 211, thus applying upward counterforces on bottoms of the capsule bodies 51. At the same time, the capsule caps 52 are restricted against the solid means 7, so that the capsule bodies 51 and the capsule caps 52 are driven to relatively move toward each other and are finally combined to configure a plurality of capsules. During this process, drug powders 4 are driven together with the capsule bodies 51 toward the capsule caps 52, and finally solidly encapsulated inside the capsules.

When the downward force applied to the main body 2 is released, the springs 221 recover and move the main body 2 to the original position.

FIG. 7 illustrates a second embodiment of the present invention. The supporters 22 and the springs 221 of the first embodiment as foregoing illustrated can be replaced with long coil springs 6, which can also achieve similar performance.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that a variety of modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention which is intended to be defined by the appended claims. 

1. A manual apparatus for dividing and encapsulating drug powders, comprising: a main body, adapted to combine capsule bodies with capsule caps for obtaining capsules containing drug powders therein, the main body comprising: a base; an assembly board, having a plurality of channels for accommodating the capsule bodies therein; a plurality of supporters, disposed on the base for supporting the main body; and a plurality of sticks, secured on the base and respectively sleeved inside a plurality of through holes defined through the main body until reaching bottoms of the channels for providing a counterforce to the capsule bodies; and a drug loader, disposed on the main body, the drug loader comprising: a plurality of slots for accommodating the drug powders; and a partitioning plate, movable and serving as a temporary bottom of the slots, wherein the channels of the assembly board are respectively aligned with the slots of the drug loader for receiving the drug powders falling down therefrom.
 2. The manual apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the supporters is provided with a spring at a top side thereof.
 3. The manual apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the drug loader further comprises a plurality of funnels at a bottom of the drug loader, for allowing the drug powders to completely fall down into the channels of the assembly board.
 4. The manual apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the partitioning plate is movable relative to the drug loader, and comprises a plurality of holes for controlling the falling down of the drug powders from the slots of the drug loader into the channels of the assembly board. 